Songoftheday 3/11/14 - We're not scared to lose it all security throw through the wall, future dreams we have to realize a thousand skeptic hands...
from the album Dream Into Action (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's Song of the Day is from singer/songwriter and keyboardist Howard Jones, who was one of the few successful solo acts to ride in on the British New Wave invasion of the early 80s. His debut album had been huge in the UK, and scored him two top-40 pop hits in America in 1984 with "New Song" and "What Is Love". A year later he released his second full-length album, Dream Into Action. Produced by Rupert Hine like his first album, the record had a bigger "sound" and more soulful background vocals (helped by future Soul II Soul lead Caron Wheeler). The first single, "Things Can Only Get Better", continued his positive vibes theme with just a dash of psychological insight (like on "What Is Love"), but the dance groove and the incessant "Whoa-whoa whoa's" couldn't be denied, just like his crazy hair...
"Things Can Only Get Better" became Howard's first top-10 pop hit in the U.S.A. in June of 1985, while also climbing to #10 on the dance club play chart and #21 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. Internationally, the song reached #6 in his native England and went top-20 in both Australia and Italy.
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The 12" remix of the song made the top-10 on the dance charts...
Here's Howard live with Ringo Starr's band...
...and again on a radio performance last year...
Finally, in 2013 French DJ and producer Cedric Gervais interpolated the record into a new EDM track that made the top-10 on the American dance airplay chart...
Up tomorrow: A feelin'-fightin band has a solitary evening.
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